Once again, dear readers, the hour is late, so it is with real regret that I must be brief. I loved TWD Ep 707 so much, in all its terrible beauty, and had I more time and opportunity, I would worship this episode with the depth and the reverence it truly deserves. ❤️❤️

Stellar performances all around, but very special Deadies go to Chandler Riggs/Carl Grimes, Jeffrey Dean Morgan/Negan, Scott M. Gimple, and, of course, Bear McCreary, for his haunting, on point soundtrack throughout the first half of TWD Season 7.

While I loved this episode so very much, this post will be so much more about the magic, and the vibe, and the playlist, which sprang to life today in a burst of sunlight, serendipity, song & sequence.

Negan and the Saviors are the most horrible dicks, ever. I mean, all boys over 10 years of age? That’s some evil shit, right there. I know Jeffrey Dean Morgan has to be all bonded with his character and all, but when he takes Negan’s side and talks about Rick and his people killing the 30+ Saviors at the satellite station, and blowing up Little Timmy and his band of biker dicks, and Carol shooting up Hiro and his crew, and Daryl, Abraham, and Rosita killing some of Dwight’s “dead friends” after Dwight killed Doctor Denise, I just have to say, “Nope.”

Sorry, but Rick Grimes and his people would never grift other communities after terrorizing them, forcing them into indentured servitude after beating one of their loved ones to death with a bat wrapped in barbed wire while the other community members were forced to kneel and watch.

Nope.

Rick Grimes would never have his people line up a row of men and boys from a community and gun them down, and then force the surviving, grieving women of the community to “produce” for him and his people.

Nope.

Sorry, Jeffrey Dean, love ya love and hate Negan, but Rick Grimes was just doing what he felt he needed to do, under pain, duress, and the need to feed his people, when he went on his stealth mission to the Savior outpost. All those other Savior slaughters were in self-defense.

Nope, sorry, no comparison.

Anyway, love seeing Tara again, love Cindy (“Our new Glenn!” says my WD buddy, to which I sing, “Hollah!”) and I find myself being very sympathetic to the women of the Oceanside, and generally approving of the Oceanside’s methods, even though they try to waste Tara on many occasions, which, at the end, was exceedingly uncool of them.

I do imagine that the Oceanside, with their impressive arsenal and tribal-style warfare, will show up again in our Season 7 in the near future. While I do hope they manage to stay hidden from Negan and the Saviors, the way Season 7 has been going, peeple, I am not betting on any peaceful seaside scenario playing out.

My guess? We will be seeing Cindy, and others of the Oceanside, soon enough, and my wish is that they will be joining the ranks of the Ricksistance.

¡Viva la Ricksistance!

There were many great moments in this episode, and I must leave it to you all this week to capture them, and post them, for me.

This week, I let Alanna Masterson, aka @lucytwobows on Instagram, provide the images for me.

A post shared by A.M. (@alannamasterson) on Nov 27, 2016 at 8:39pm PST

Pinky Swear Deadie goes to Tara, for keeping her word to Cindy. ❤

(And, Heath, I really hope you are ok, man.)

Much love, dear readers, and enjoy the Pinky Swear Playlist, a dreamy, sundrenched, salt-air breezy mix featuring some old favorites, as well as some hot newcomers (The Lemon Twigs, Munro Fox, and Amy Syed), splashed with with a double-dash of former favorites (Grimes’“Kill V Maim” and ODESZA’s“Sun Models”), then topped off with double-shot of Led Zeppelin.

(I gotta say, gang, any TWD ep where I can kick off the playlist with Physical Graffiti’s iconic “Down By The Seaside” is a total win-win, in my book.)

❤ <3<3<3

Pinky Swear Playlist:

Led Zeppelin, “Down By The Seaside”

The Lemon Twigs, “These Words”

Munro Fox, “Hush”

Retrocity, “Games Without Frontiers” (Was originally wanting to include Peter Gabriel’s original version of this classic song, but could not find on Spotify. I did, however, happen upon this amazing a capella version of the song by Retrocity, which I fell immediately in deep, hot love with. I think Peter Gabriel would approve.) ❤

Well, gang, there was a whole lot to love with TWD’s Ep 705, “Go Getters.”

It was as if Kirkman, Gimple & Nicotero knew, once again, that we in the TWD family needed a balm for our hurting hearts and we souls after last week’s episode, “Service,” forced viewers to take a knee and watch, in silent horror, as Negan, his goon squad, and his prized prisoner, Daryl Dixon, raided Alexandria, fleecing the community’s mattresses, meds, & munitions, while Negan joked, threatened, and made great show of belittling and bullying our man, Rick Grimes, in front of his people, and eapecially, his son.

After that harrowing episode last week, “Go Getters” was just the medicine we TWD fans needed: Maggie, and Sasha, yhe PSOAMS(Post-Apocalyptic-Sisters-On-A-Mission), the ride-or-die duo sharing laughter, tears, solace and sisterhood while showing the Hilltop just how it’s done, sons.

Whether they’re calling out Gregory (the Posterboy For Obsequious Bondage), lighting a fire under Jesus (“Whaddyouwant, Jesus?”), crushing walker skulls or crushing booby-trap cars with a massive tractor (“Hello, farmer’s daughter.”), Maggie and Sasha are rising to new heights of beauty, brains, brawn and badassery.

Better together, and together forever, is my mantra for these two warrior goddesses, The PSOAMS ❤️❤️ Post Apocalyptic Sisters On A Mission ❤️❤️ Maggie & Sasha ❤️❤️

Rebel Girl Deadies go to our fave womyn warriors, Rosita (who, I predict, will fire the first bullet of the Ricksistance), and to Michonne, whose aim is always true. ❤ ❤

What I am lack in wordcount in my worship of TWD Season 7, dear readers, I more than make up for in playlist. If you don’t have access to the playlists via Spotify, I encourage you to compile them in your preferred music sharing site, and give them a listen. Each playlist is carefully and lovingly crafted, sequenced, and fine-tuned to pay homage to each TWD episode. ❤

One love, TWD Family, and for those who celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving.

And, besides, the hours of work I put into this post got lost in the void, and I just have to roll with that. It’s ok. It’s how it goes sometimes.

I know I speak for all of us when I say that this week was a rough, rough week, all around.

It will take some time to process this loss, and I don’t think any of us in TWD fandom will really every be the same.

Time will pass, and time will lessen the pain, but the hurt and the heartbreak that we are feeling now will never really go away…it will heal, and scar over, but we will carry it always, and that’s ok, because it means we are carrying both Glenn Rhee and Abraham Ford with us, always.

Glenn and Abe are what bravery, badassery, and being a beautiful, loving boyfriend are all about.

Send love to Rick, Daryl, Maggie, Carl, Sasha, Rosita, Michonne, Aaron, and Eugene. They have had to bear witness to unpeakable tragedy, and take a direct hit of immeasurable loss.

And, that being said, don’t be mad at Kirkman, or Gimple, or Nicotero. The Glenn death scene in Ep 701 was crafted in beautiful, bold, harrowing precision and detailed to recreate exactly how it went down in the comic series.

And, BTW, the 100th issue of The Walking Dead comic series, where Negan makes his grand entrance and bashes poor Glenn Rhee to death with Lucille, his baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, came out in 2012. Four years ago.

I would say that Kirkman, Gimple and Nicotero have been holding back for quite some time, giving the television series audience a substantial buffer of time and space, to get ready, to prepare for the inevitable gauntlet that would come down on us, hard, that the comic book readers never got.

The way I see it, Kitkman, Gimple and Nicotero finally gave us PrimeTime Pollyannas a chance to earn that TWD cred and, finally, catch up to the Comic Book Set

Just something to consider.

And, don’t be mad at Daryl for being Daryl. No self-respecting Dixon ever sat idly by while some bully bashed their friend’s brains in and then turned to the grieving ex and taunted her with the bloody bat.

A Dixon would be like:

And, poor Daryl was devastated when he saw what his rash actions caused…

And now, poor Daryl is Negan’s new pet hostage. And that is going to suck some major ass.

Don’t stay mad at him…he needs our love right now!

(Now, on that subject, don’t hate the messenger, but I feel like Daryl’s imprisonment will not only give us viewers an insider view on the working of the Saviors’ compound and all their weird cult shit, but it will also provide him with an opportunity to re-acquaint himself with Sherry, the beautiful runaway older sister who was with Dwight and poor, doomed Tina, in the burned forest.

I think that I sensed a connection between Daryl and Sherry, and if my hunches are correct, I think that Sherry might act as both a potential love interest for Daryl and a potential “damsel in distress” element that will wake Daryl out of his self-pity and self-condemnation, and spur him to action.

I know it’s hard for some to share their fave pretend bf, Daryl Dixon, but come on, people, we don’t want him to be some some asexual anime character, do we?

Daryl needs this, and Sherry seems like she’s super beautiful, super resilient and low-maintenance, and she did look super great riding away on the back of Daryl’s motorcycle…imagine how cute she would look riding away on the back of it, with Daryl riding them both the hell outta the Saviors’ compund!

The way I see it, Daryl needs a reason to live, and Sherry seems like she is in serious need of a rescue right about now…

I know it’s super shallow of me to even be talking about potential future hookups when Maggie, Sasha, and Rosita are seriously grieving the loss of their sweet loves, but hey, at least I got you thinking about something else for a minute, right?

The new world order of TWD Season 7 will be dark times, indeed, gang. Take care of yourselves, and take care of each other.

Rick’s had to submit to a psychopath, being given no other choice, and this breaking of Rick’s leadership, and of his will, is what Greg Nicotero called, basically, as the real tragedy of TWD Ep 701.

Out man’s going to have to eat some shit, and it’s gonna be hard to watch, gang.

Remember this face, kids. Rick Smash! will be back, with a vengeance…

In the spirit of taking care of one’s self, I am going to be taking myself out of my self-imposed posting schedule on this blogsite and “easing up on the posting standards” for a while, posting mainly musical playlists, with maybe some pictures and/or text, on the www.barnfullawalkers.com blogsite.

I have been steadily posting since TWD Season 4 premiered, in the Fall of 2013, and this post marks my 69th post 😀 😀 😀

My readership is at an unprecedented high, with views from all over the world. I am so thankful for everyone who has checked out my crazy blog, read my posts, listened to my playlists.

I’ve put a lot of love, heart, and more hours than I can count into this project, and I feel that some real magic has happened here. My life is busy in many ways, and I must give my full attention to the world around me. I simply cannot sustain a weekly deadline at this point in my life, like I could in the past.

As my wise musician/artist friend put it, “When I create, or perform, I feel like I’m ‘wringing out the sponge,’ giving out everything I have. Then, I need to take some time ro reabsorb, to fill my sponge again.”

And that is exactly what it feels like I need to do at this point, to reabsorb, recharge, and refocus my creative energies, and to simplify for a spell.

In the interim, I will continue to offer musical playlists, crafted individually to correspond to each TWD Season 7 episode.

In addition, I will continue to celebrate TWD up to the minute with postings of sweet pics and random thoughts on my barnfullawalkers social media accounts, where the conversation is just beginning:

For Glenn Rhee, and Abraham Ford, I humbly offer this playlist, which includes Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper,” which initially appeared in my playlist for TWD Ep 505, “Self Help.” That post, as well as the playlist, was a love offering to Abraham, Glenn, Eugene, Maggie, Tara, and Rosita, as well as being celebration of Eugene’s epic mullet.